Yeah, I was going to mention that.

The Eagles are drafting like a team that's coming off a Super Bowl- plugging a few cracks.. They were 8-8 and have huge holes.. Another undersized OLB/DE tweener from a small school..
I'm done.

The third round pick was odd, as we're not really lacking for undersized rushers. That being said, Reid/Johnson's philosophy is speed not size on the edges, and has been fairly effective (given that the Reid-era has been far and away the best for the Eagles since the '60s). Also, they've drafted undersized speed DE's well (Burgess and Cole) and I would imagine they see value with these guys. The other thing to keep in mind is that Johnson's defense is predicated on D-line pressure, and they've always placed a premium on that rather than linebackers. It strikes me as a bit counterintuitive, but it has, generally, worked when they've had the right players.

As for filling cracks rather than the bigger holes, my sense is that they saw this draft as having one or two truly valuable players (which they tried and failed to trade up for), and then a whole lot of middling value.

Gyuri, that must have been horrible. If it were me, I would have cursed my parents for moving me there.

It really was as clear a case of good versus evil as there has ever been in sports.

UMiami football is still a bush-league outfit, regardless of how many championships they win.
We went to the Penn State-Miami game down there in 1999 (where PSU won after perennial underachiever Ron Graham made a huge stop on fourth and short and then PSU went ahead on a miraculous down field throw from Kevin Thompson to Chaffee Fields. Thompson wasn't really that good. It was like the hand of God came down and touched him and he threw the pefect pass just so our trip to Miami wouldn't be ruined.)

Anyway, I was thoroughly unimpressed with the Miami fans and the atmosphere at the Orange Bowl. The stadium itself is a dump. They only sold the game out the day before (at that time, both teams were in the top 10) and at least a quarter of the fans there were PSU fans. They have a pretty good marching band, but the band was drowned out by outdated pop songs blared through the PA. Their fans only sing along song was "Whomp, There It Is." Most of their fans the sort of guys who wear bandanas on their head at all time and have barbed-wire tatoos on their bicep.


Anyway, Connor got picked by Carolina, which isn't too bad. Carolina has potential to be pretty good this year and if they don't, they'll probably fire Fox and try to get Bill Cowher.

QUOTE:
If it were me, I would have cursed my parents for moving me there.

I threw a five-year long temper tantrum to exact revenge.

I can't and won't argue with anything you wrote about UMiami.

As for Connor, I was hoping he'd go to the Eagles. I hope he excels on a terrible Panthers team, b/c the Eagles have the Panthers first round pick next year.

Did that guy who has depression get picked?

I don't know, but I do know that the guy from Army who would have been shipped off to Iraq if he hadn't gotten picked got picked in the 7th round.

Wait, is there some sort of "NFL exception" to your military service obligation?

Apparently, Army recently changed its policy so that people drafted by the NFL do not have to serve the mandatory 2 years. I don't think Navy or Air Force made the change.

Makes sense. If there's one thing America has a surplus of it's qualified Army officers, whereas we are suffering from a serious shortage of football players.

Exactly. . .although we are talking about Detroit, here.

Gyuri, everyone else has read me mention this about 20 times by now, but since you're new...

...DeSean Jackson went to my high school, and I've been calling him a future star ever since I saw him catch a TD on offense and switch over to play cornerback and return a pick for a TD in the CIF Southern Section championship four years ago. Take comfort that you have a guy that played for the mighty Long Beach Poly Jackrabbits, the school that's produced more NFL players than any other high school.

I am not sure what that means. (edit: in response to Gyrui's last post)

I hate to sound like a curmudgeon here (ha, just kidding, I love to sound like a curmudgeon!) but this is really pissing me off. The idea that you can defer your military obligation, at a time of war no less, in order to play football is fucking ridiculous.

It serves USMA's purpose. If guys know they don't have to rule out the NFL by choosing to play for Army, Army may get better football recruits. Better recruits means more wins (or any wins, in the case of Army, which has really sucked in recent years), beating Navy, a possible bowl appearance, better exposure and better morale at USMA, which in turn helps them get better applicants, which is particularly important for Army because Air Force and Navy are currently considered more desirable among the small subset of high school kids who want to go to a service academy and better applicants mean we get better Army officers.

Maybe all of that doesn't really serve the country all that well, but in the grand scheme of how our military spends money and runs itself, letting one kid play in the NFL every few years, instead of becoming yet another second lieutenant, isn't anywhere near the top of the list of things to get upset about.

And it's not like the kid is trying to shirk his obligation. Nobody would ever go to a service academy four years, athlete or not, expecting that somehow they are going to avoid getting shot at.

QUOTE:
I am not sure what that means. (edit: in response to Gyrui's last post)

Soccer Scrimmage, after agreeing with you, I was attempting to make a quality-of-debate lowering snarky comment along the lines of: Yes, I agree with you that this is an odd policy (and somewhat offensive, though I also agree with Reed's post), but if any team in the NFL is suffering from a lack of football players, it would be the Lions.

Inca,

I do remember reading, in my lurking days, discussions between you and UA about DeSean Jackson, but I completely forgot the context. I definitely hope you're right that he is a star-in-the-making. From everything I've seen of him, he's lightning fast and has good football sense, though I worry that he's a little too small (not just short, after all, Steve Smith has done quite well at that height, but slight). Regardless, I'm excited that the Eagles have him now.

Reed: while you are right it's a small thing, and that in fact it may actually be a net benefit to the US Army, it is still absolutely galling that West Point would choose to lower the military obligation of its students for the sake of a professional football career.